“I hated myself so much I wouldn’t go to school and I wouldn’t leave my bedroom. My mum had to bring me food and drink, because I had no energy to get myself anything. She would bath and wash my hair once a week too.

“I’d sleep a lot and watch lots of daytime TV or box sets, things like Desperate Housewives, Homes Under the Hammer or Jeremy Kyle.

“By the time I was 16, it got so bad I wanted to die so I tried to overdose on painkillers. My mum bought a medicine cabinet with a lock but I broke it open. My last attempt was when I was 18. I took 30 Paracetamol and was hospitalised for three days.

“I would self-harm too, cutting my arms with scissors or bits of glass. Sometimes it was so bad I would need to go to hospital for stitches.

Alanah on holiday in Bavaria when she was 14, the age she began to hate her looks

“When I was 16, I googled: ‘I’m so ugly I want to die’, and a link to the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation came up. The symptoms they described were the symptoms I was suffering but I still didn’t believe I had it.”

One in 100 people in the UK suffer from BDD, a clinically diagnosed anxiety that causes people to have a distorted view of how they look.

A small scar becomes a major flaw or a blemish can seem out of proportion, and sufferers become preoccupied with perceived imperfections.

It affects all age groups but usually starts when a person is a teenager.

When she was 18, a charity paid for her to stay at the private Priory Clinic in North London, for five months, and that was a turning point.

“When I first arrived someone checked on me every 15 – 30 minutes until they thought I wasn’t going to harm myself. I had two sessions of CBT a week and gradually, I was introduced to exposure therapy.

“A group of us suffering from BDD or social anxiety, would have to go to a cafe and order food, or we’d have to travel on public transport during the rush hour. We thought we’d be ridiculed.

“I felt horrendous, you’re meant to be in an anxious situation and you’re facing your biggest fear. I wasn’t sure it was worth it because I was just convinced it was my appearance and nothing would change that.

“I was told to try it for a month and if it didn’t work, I could go back to bed and live like I was before. I didn’t change my opinion about my appearance but I dealt with the anxiety better.”

In No Body’s Perfect photographer Rankin, 50, who’s taken pictures of hundreds of celebrities including Madonna and Kate Moss, and disabled artist Alison Lapper, 51, meet four subjects who are struggling with their body image for different reasons.

The three others are, amputee Damian, 48, who lost his leg as a teenager to cancer, Carly, 35, who’s suffered from Alopecia from the age of 11, and 22-year-old David, who has Neurofibromatosis, which causes growths to appear on his face.

Of the four, Rankin was most worried about Alanah.

He said: “I honestly thought she wouldn’t turn up. Photographs are her nemesis so there was a lot riding on taking her picture.”

The plan was to produce a photograph so beautiful that Alanah would see herself clearly for the first time in years. Rankin already thought she was stunning.

He said: “She’s already got what she’s trying to achieve but she just can’t see it.”

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It was extreme exposure therapy for Alanah who said: “I know Rankin is an amazing photographer but I was convinced mine would be the only photograph he’d take that wouldn’t work out.

“I felt very self-conscious during the shoot. There were so many people around and I thought they were probably all staring at me thinking how ugly I was.

“When I saw the photograph, all I could see were ugly blemishes, my arms looked fat and my eyes looked uneven, although everyone else thought I looked beautiful.

“How I feel about it changes day by day, but it’s hanging up at home and I haven’t made Mum take it down.”

The pretty blonde with her family, a few months before she stopped leaving the house

Since the photograph was taken Alanah has started university and is studying psychology. She still has down days, and has weekly CBT sessions with a BDD specialist, but a year ago she was barely leaving home.

“Life has completely changed since the shoot,” she said. “I thought I would pull out of it but I didn’t completely hate it. I would actually be prepared to do another one.”